A tutorial to build the most basic form of an Excel Dashboard.

1. Tutorial 1:
Building a Simple
MS Excel Dashboard
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

2. A Simple Dashboard Structure
Data Dashboard
An interface
Dashboards are used typically for
tracking metrics linked to some data
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

3. This data has a specific structure
Data Dashboard
An interface
For a simple MS Excel Dashboard,
it should be in a “list format”
Note: It can be in a “tabular” or any other format, but lists are the easiest to handle.
*list format ensures unique records
*tabular format is generally a 2x2, 3x4 or a column-row combination
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

4. Example of a “list format”
1. The adjacent data stores records of
expenditures
a) For Jan and Feb
b) Across India and Singapore
c) For 5 different line items
2. Each “record” is uniquely represented
by {region, month, expenditure}
3. The unique ID of a record is “#”
4. Therefore, Record # 7 is {Singapore, Jan,
Audit and Tax fees} = 44
5. You can
a) Add more records
Example: {India, Mar, Rent} = 80
a) Or add more details to each record
by adding another column
Example:
{#, REGION, MONTH, WEEK,
EXPENDITURE} = AMOUNT
One can add as many records or details
he wishes to.
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

5. To match our metric requirements we
need to filter out the right data
Data Dashboard
An interface
This filtered data can be further processed
to meet our very specific requirements
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

6. This filtering out and processing is
done at the “interface”
Data Dashboard
An interface
A very simple and flexible filter in Excel is
the function “SUMIFS()”
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

7. The interface: “SUMIFS”
It helps to refer to a unique record, or sum a group of records depending on criteria you pass in the
SUMIFS() formula. Try it out for yourself, you will know why I prefer it more than a Pivot Table.
*Please note: In case you are using google spreadsheets then use “=arrayformula(sumproduct(…..)) instead of SUMIFS()
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

8. Now let us learn the basic
“Dashboard”
Data Dashboard
An interface
A dashboard generally has visual indicators linked to a metric.
The metric is part of the “interface”
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

9. So let us define some metric..
But first let us set some rules…
Rule 1: You have to be creative
Rule 2: Follow Rule 1 tenaciously
And last but not the least,
Rule 3: Write down your comments or queries below this presentation
Now getting back to our study…
Say, I want to track a pie-chart of the % share of all expenditures incurred in Jan
and Feb (and any month’s records I may add in the future to my data)
Something like this:
16%
26%
11%
25%
22%
Travel and Conveyance
Audit and Tax fees
Rent
Office Supplies
Commission
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

10. Then observe the following…
metricfilter
INTERFACE
DASHBOARD
DATA
The “list format” data is filtered out using SUMIFS(). Then some metrics are
developed using your creativity/requirements and linked to a visual
indicator
………and thus your simplest Dashboard is now ready!
DOWNLOAD
EXCEL FILE
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

11. Some Practical Advantages of a
Dashboard
• Any update in your data, automatically updates your
dashboard
• If you are conducting regular repeat analysis and
reporting, it will be best to design your dashboard at
once and then simply maintain the correctness of your
database
• It provides more flexibility and customization
compared to a pivot table
• It is a one time effort and looks neat, intelligent and
impressive!
• Its an art that will make your boss very happy!
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?

12. For more tutorials, please visit:
http://verydashbored.com/category/a-tutorials/
Thank you
Contact Us:
info@verydashbored.com
Get in touchWant to custom build your dashboard?